MidtermStudyGuide - Wilson - fa24 - Copy.docx

Class-consciousness

The awareness of one's social class and its interests, often perceived as being in opposition to those of management.

Authority

The right to use power.

Representative democracy

A government in which leaders make decisions by winning a competitive struggle for the popular vote.

Elite

Individuals who possess a disproportionate share of valued resources, like money, prestige, or expertise.

Federalism

A political system in which the national government shares power with sub-divisional governments, such as state governments.

Fourteenth Amendment

Ratified in 1868, it includes the phrase 'equal protection of the laws,' mandating that no state law could treat whites and blacks differently.

The Smith Act

A law passed in 1940 making it illegal to advocate the overthrow of the US government by force or violence.

Public opinion

The aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs shared by some portion of the adult population.

Twenty-sixth Amendment

Ratified in 1971, it forbids denying the right to vote to citizens who are 18 years or older based on age.

McCulloch v. Maryland

A Supreme Court case affirming that the federal government is supreme over the states in the exercise of expressed and implied powers.

Miranda v. Arizona

A landmark Supreme Court case that held that involuntary confessions could not be used in federal and state criminal trials.

Democracy in America

A work written by Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat who analyzed American democracy.

Village of Skokie v. National Socialist Party

A Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutional right of the Nazi party to parade peacefully, even with provocative anti-Semitic slogans.

Founding Fathers

The group of leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, led the war for independence from Great Britain, and established the Constitution.

John Locke

A 17th-century English philosopher whose writings on liberty influenced the Founding Fathers' defense of liberty as a natural right.